Finishing stretch tests MacArthur to limit

Shes done the hard part, but weather forecasts point to potential boat-breaking conditions as Britains sailing heroine nears her goal. By Edward Gorman

ON HER 70th day at sea and within 570 miles of a historic non-stop solo round-the-world record, Ellen MacArthur yesterday warned that her boat, B&Q, was under the biggest stresses of her entire voyage.

As she battled a northerly gale 500 miles due west of Cape Finisterre, with a lead of two days and five hours over the 72-day, 23-hour record set last year by the French yachtsman Francis Joyon, MacArthur was worrying that something could still go wrong to prevent her from finishing before the deadline of 7.04am on Wednesday.

“I can’t relax at all, because it’s not a relaxing situation and it’s not like, ‘Don’t worry, you will be in in three days’, because we are facing the worst conditions, from a boat-breaking point of view, of the entire trip,” she said.

Sailing in steadily increasing winds, funnelling down the western perimeter of the notorious Bay of Biscay